Canada is under attack. As the occupation of our nation’s capital by a loose alliance of anti-government activists, anti-vaxxers and hatred tourists enters its second week, it’s become increasingly clear they’re not going to leave without a fight.
And while the number of people participating in the occupation has steadily dwindled, they have attracted a powerful new ally: Trumpworld. Whether it’s Trump himself calling Justin Trudeau a “far-left lunatic” or his acolytes, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson and Jack Posobiec, whipping up their own frenzied followers, it’s clear there’s an organized push underway to undermine the Canadian government and invade our politics.
It’s time for Trudeau to push back.
Yes, he’s recovering from COVID-19, which explains his recent absence in — and from — Ottawa. But he needs to take control of this situation before it deteriorates even further. He’s clearly not going to get any help from the Ottawa police department, which has effectively surrendered the city to the freedom convoyers, and it’s unlikely Doug Ford (who faces an election in a few months and the risk of a split in his vote with Randy Hillier’s far-right Ontario First Party) is going to ride to the rescue here.
That leaves the federal government as the last line of defence standing between an emboldened far-right fringe and our democratic institutions.
That fringe is only going to get bolder. While the GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $10 million in their name has been kiboshed, a new flood of cash is pouring in from sources both inside and outside our borders. As my colleague Sandy Garossino laid out in a recent piece, the volume of money at work here reeks of Trumpworld fuckery.
“Any Canadian fundraiser will tell you this number is impossible to achieve organically within Canada. This group is not a registered charity, non-profit or even a trucking organization. Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly is on record saying there is significant influence and money pouring in from the United States,” Garossino says.
If Trudeau needs some inspiration here, he need only look to his father and how he handled the FLQ crisis in 1970. When the Front de libération du Québec kidnapped a British diplomat and Quebec’s deputy premier from their Montreal homes, Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act when it became clear the municipal and provincial governments couldn’t respond.
And when reporters asked how far he was willing to go, he delivered his famous response: “Just watch me.”
We have been fortunate not to see any extreme violence in Ottawa yet, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Invoking the Emergencies Act, the 1988 replacement for the War Measures Act, seems unnecessary at this point. But maybe it’s time for Trudeau to engage more directly with the protesters and show Canadians the people occupying downtown Ottawa aren’t the ones in charge.
Here, too, he can channel his father and his display of defiant courage at a 1968 St. Jean Baptiste day celebration in Montreal. While many of the other assembled dignitaries and politicians ran for shelter when separatists started pelting their balcony with rocks and bottles, Trudeau stood his ground. The message was clear: I’m not going anywhere, and you can’t intimidate me.
Canadians need to see and hear that same message from their prime minister right now. Conservatives and their enablers in the mainstream media would surely portray any show of force or resolve as a provocation to violence and an insult to the protesters. Let them.
And when the rocks and bottles start raining down on our prime minister, let them defend that display of lawlessness and violence. Let it colour the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race and define the candidates who intend to run in it. The rest of Canada should not forget their behaviour here or who they chose to stand next to and support.
With the right message and the right leadership, the occupation of Ottawa can end. And when it’s over, we need to take full stock of who was really behind it — and what they wanted to achieve.
Few Canadians want to see our politics become as polarized and toxic as America’s have become under Donald Trump. But as the last week has shown, that process is already well underway. Whether the Conservative Party of Canada chooses to fight back against that incursion or surrender to the short-term advantages it offers them is still an open question.
But it’s time for Trudeau to end the siege on our capital — and start the inquiry into how it happened.
Comments
start by calling them a lawless mob not “protesters”. MSM still giving them air of legitimacy with every sentence that calls them legitimate protesters.
Mark Carney called it sedition which their “manifesto” clearly signalled as it stuck its tongue out at government . so much for standing up for “rule of law.
But so far feds are only up for defending extractive corporations laws with military lethal force engaged ( See b. c. )
BRING IN THE ARMY AND MAKE SOME ARRESTS OF THESE LAWLESS ANARCHISTS.
Why are the leaders not in custody? why is a cordon sanitaire not established around Ottawa ?
the longer there is no response the more emboldened this mob gets.
I am baffled by the absence of response.
"Hold my Chablis" would be justin time.
Thank you for this opinion piece Max. I agree. And I agree with your comments Valerie. It's time for this to stop. And it looks like the only way to do that is to bring in the army. I will look up Mark Carney's comments about the situation..
I am deeply troubled and deeply worried about what this is doing to our democracy.
I share the same sentiment Patricia, I as well am deeply perplexed at the erosion of democracy on planet earth. Did we ever have complete “Freedom”? I’m not so sure any longer, it’s all been a COVID hologram. These days seem to be akin to the final days ushering in biblical end time prophesy. Too horrific a projection and too close for comfort? The vibrations of a discontented world surround us all, it’s smothering. Load up Karma in the bank, we’re all going to need it. Moment by moment be nice to all even if one doesn’t share the same ideals and thoughts, be kind to all.
It seems to me that the people behind the manifesto could actually be arrested for sedition. That might be a start. I think it's essential to a separate those people from the rest of the basically law abiding noisemakers. Choking off supplies to the rest of the trucks is essential.
Also, I find the lack of leadership on all fronts really disturbing. For sure this is a tricky situation for Mr. Trudeau but the willingness of the Conservatives to capitalize on this it's sickening. It does shine a light on their electoral mentality that we should all be paying attention to. Stephen Harper is a very bright and very cynical man. He figured out that you can win absolute power in this country with something like 38% of the vote. His cynicism is baked into the party's character and by that I mean they are only looking for 38% of the vote. They are not trying to grow their tent by reaching out to other Canadians. Harper's attitude it is that if they can get the 38% (realistically 20% of Canadians will always vote Conservative so they only need to find 18% somewhere) they don't need or, more importantly, don't need to CARE about 62% of Canadians. That explains the trolling attitude that the CPC projects pretty much all the time. Division is part of their plan. That is why they think a toxic weirdo like Poilievre has a chance to be PM... because he does!
"... a toxic weirdo like Poilievre has a chance to be PM..."
Not if his own Ottawa constituents wake up to the fact he actually condoned their imprisonment and harassment by siding with the mob -- with the selfies to prove it. If he's re-elected by Ottawa constituents, then his riding deserves convoys and barricades.
There are a lot of toxic weirdo’s out there particularly politicians with ulterior motives. If Ottawa was intent on listening to concerns of the truckers it would have been over in a week. Not for our Prime Minister JT, he did exactly what he wanted to do. Pit the rest of Canada against the smaller percentage of truckers out there that are demonstrating. Main stream news has them tarred and feathered and Canadians en mass are jumping on the trash the truckers convoy band wagon. Instead Justin Trudeau has to fuel the fire, I’m bigger than you and can crush you all if I have a mind is what JT portraying here. It’s all political bull with a twist, if you dare check out Justin Trudeau and Klaus Schwab, the one world currency, one world government, the chips are in, the UN is all for it. And Klaus Schwab wants the key to the bank.
No media is on the ball with this one. Or else they choose to ignore it. Stephen Harper still runs the Conservative Party of Canada. Whenever any one of the party takes even one step away from the hard line of his manifesto, they are done! Mackay, Scheer, O'Toole are ones we know of only. Harper's minions and acolytes are still at work within the party undermining any attempt to bring back any 'progressive' ideas. And, we all know who these people are amongst the rag tag crew of Reform minded conservatives. Until and when Harper is finally banished from the party, we will not have a leader from this group for a very long time, one that is capable of leading a country like Canada filled with so many different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs; a leader who is willing to work with all parties to bring concensus on the varied issues we need to see resolved. Siding with the convoy is only one aspect of their 'my way or the highway' attitude about Canada and what it should represent for all of us.
Perhaps not everyone has realized that the Conservative caucus removing their elected leader is in fact a coup of sorts. One wonders what they'll do if the Conservative "moderates" hold sway when they elect a new leader.
In the meantime, one wonders why the entire group isn't named as a terrorist organization, which would make defending, financing or provisioning them illegal. (For those who don't realize it, we enacted our own legislation with most of the provisions of the US Patriot Act.)
Speaking of Stephen Harper, isn't he heading up an international organization pushing right-wing extremism all around the world?
Enough was enough before they even arrived in Ottawa. The leaders/organizers telegraphed their intentions, saying the quiet part out loud, and should have been charged (or at least questioned by the RCMP) for seditious intent then and there, full stop. They weren't going to Ottawa to protest vaccine mandates that are after all set by the provinces not the Feds, they were going to Ottawa to replace a democratically elected government with one of their own choosing. The 'drop all mandates thing' is not a negotiation position, it is a simply a canard that they've used to dupe people. A simple question that should be asked - if you're not advocating the overthrow of our democratically elected government, what in god's blazes do you think you are doing in Ottawa right now?
This is not a hypothetical domestic terror threat, this is a crisis that is happening in real time - shouldn't the RCMP (whose main campus is literally just down the road on the Vanier parkway) be doing more than lending a few hundred officers? Sloly has asked for 1800. What are they waiting for, for the mob to burn down parliament before they act?
I agree, but only in part (on fossil fuels and climate he's hypocritical and wishy washy). On the federal mandates he hasn't budged one millimetre. Not on vaccine rollouts either. Yes he needs to act, and he and local officials have winter and vulnerable fuel supply lines on their side.
I find it interesting the majority of those trashing the truckers are those from Ottawa. Ottawa, tulip capital of Canada. I’m from the far west only the Pacific Ocean west of here. Tons of support out here for the truckers. Seems to me the noise against the truckers is coming from Ottawa. I guess that stands to reason, the Canadian news 2nd to trashing our truckers. Then there’s JT himself telling the truckers he’s not going to budge not even a meeting .. nothing. True to form tulip residents are whining and complaining 90+% more than the rest of Canadians, while being heralded as saints by CBC and CTV.
Trudeau could have chosen to go to the table but no, just like his father and the one finger solute to the farmers of northern BC. I was there a young impressionable Canadian man and thought Pierre was pretty cool flipping off every Canadian farmer. Today I think that was appalling for a Prime Minister to conduct himself in such a manner. Now his son JT is doing a similar thing to the truckers, they’re getting the finger behind JT’s back. At least Pierre had the balls to do it through the train window. JT ain’t moving his stand not even going to talk about it, it’s over in his mind. That may be a pipe dream .. time will tell. Just like the farmers of Canada got in the 70’s from Pierre Trudeau. Like father like son I guess, JT is pissed and he’s not over with the truckers yet. Just wait till JT uses millions of dollars of tax payers coin to sue a few hundred truckers that bring food and goods to Canadians. Gotta keep the tulips happy. For a politician who said after his election he needs to build better relations to win the west over. The tulips don’t care about the west and JT isn’t showing he cares either. Just like his father Pierre Eliott Trudeau, I see Pierre’s son Justin do the same disrespectful comments to hard working Canadians. I was paying taxes to Pierre’s Canada when JT was getting wiped clean by his nurse maid which I also helped pay for while his mom was out partying it up. Before I could vote I still had to pay taxes, that’s just wrong. Be careful truckers, there’s a lot of pissed off tulips out there.
I can not believe that this has gone on for so long. It is absolutely ridiculous. Trudeau has always struck me as being ineffectual and wish washy but for heavens sake would he please stand up for the majority of Canadians who find this situation abhorrent. The last thing Canadians need is a foreign funded quasi protest and to end up with Trump led factions entering Canadian democracy. If we want strife and division Trudeau is going the right direction to help promote it. Stand up for us Trudeau!
Love your comments.
I don’t want to see Canada split West from East. That said; this is what our PM said at his post-election speech.
“And to those and to those who did not vote for us, knowing that we will work every single day for you. We will govern for everyone. Regardless of how you cast your ballot, ours is a team that will fight for all Canadians.”
Well apparently, Canadian truckers are not Canadians, JT isn’t even going to have a meeting with let alone ‘fight’ for Canadian truckers, another acceptance speech lie. Canadian politicians only work 6 months of the year, every day is out right misinformation.
JT spent more time travelling with family to and through out India on tax payers dollars but somehow completely forgot about western Canada. When was the last time JT took family vacation in Canada. How about the west he said he wanted to mend western relations .. JT gives more misinformation. And truth be known if JT was at all interested in western Canada he’d visit there in person, but no. Where is Justin Trudeau? Certainly not in western Canada like he promised.
Justin Trudeau’s election speech;
“And to Canadians in Alberta and Saskatchewan, know that you are an essential part of our great country. I’ve heard your frustration and I want to be there to support you. Let us all work hard to bring our country together.” Sure JT bring Canada together .. fact remains your driving a wedge between west and east.
No better time than to go all out for a new Canadian Separatist Party than now. Separation the new improved Canada, Western Canada from Eastern Canada. Wonder if a new separatist party to split East & West Canada could get millions of funding dollars from the United States of America. With that statement, is that a pipe dream? Think again Prime Minister Trudeau, take a slice of this piece of reality pie .... Donald Trump and Elon Must both believe “Canadian truckers rule” and you JT have little to NO friends south of the border. My wager is campaign funds to a Canadian Separatist Party, would be millions in donation dollars from some of the biggest names in the United States.
CNN;
President Donald Trump’s top economic and trade advisers on Sunday doubled down on the president’s attacks on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying there’s a “special place in hell” for the “weak” and “dishonest” Canadian leader.
Global News;
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and attorneys general in Florida, Texas, West Virginia and Louisiana — all Republicans — have also thrown their weight behind the Canadian truckers.
Wake up Prime Minister Trudeau, you may be making grave political mistakes here if you think Canada is immune from separating West from East. You are creating a political landscape ripe for a separatist Canada with big money coming from the south.
Hell, possibly I could be the new Prime Minister to Canada West, the new Western Canada void of the arrogance of the Eastern politicians. Those that haven’t even set foot on the western sea board .. ever.
This may not stay posted for long copy’n’paste if you want a copy.
I am very worried by this situation. I agree that these hooligans should no longer be allowed to occupy our capital, or any of our borders, or any other town or city.
However, I do not think that our Prime Minister should stand before them for discussions. They are clearly criminal, and do not respect our laws. I would not consider negotiating with them.
And they will not be throwing rocks and bottles. It will be much worse.
The perpetuation of mis-information that I have just scanned here is so sad to see. What has happened to critical thinking and allowing multi-perspectives to inform our opinion. I see neither. The repetition of indoctrination, which not even Fauci can bring himself to repeat at this point, evidences the further decay of a nation that already had an international reputation of nice, simple people of a non-secondary-industry, extraction-resource economy - easily bought, easily taken advantage of. For people to not appreciate that not all people are willing to take an experimental industrialized drug therapy into their body is to not understand the most basic human right. In my world - to stick my totally healthy arm out to this would be pure and utter prostitution - my body is my temple. I am putting no one to any increased risk than someone who has had two boosters on top of two jabs. Actually I am healthier and my immunity protects not just myself but reduces transmittance. The world is absolutely declaring this to be true and real. As the farce of this CoVID flu is announced and evidenced by thousands upon thousands of highly educated medical professionals around the world, those who are devoted to the pharmaceutical industry and government investment in that, can only be understood as having jab-remorse or that the jab is already presenting its brain damaging effect. Fierce lambs recognizing too late the slaughter, lashing virulent, ridiculous rhetoric hoping for Trudeau to caress their souls. I wouldn't wait for it! From all that I have read and listened to - that being the real, actual science - I suggest one try to cleanse one's body of this jab ASAP. I am disappointed in the lack of a more full spectrum of coverage by the National Observer of this critical point in the history of civilization, which can only make me wonder what grants and what financial support have come from exactly where......
There are two main problems here. One is, most of these people are liars and it's hard to engage with people who are just lying through their teeth. The thing is, although there may be a few sincere people whose real basis for protest is that they genuinely, misguidedly, think there is some sort of problem with the vaccines, for most that's not what's going on. I mean, if I really believed that the problem was vaccines made with a new technology, I would:
1. Mask fanatically and agitate for mass distribution of N-95 masks, because lacking a vaccine that's the only way not catch the disease. Also push for a big public effort at improved ventilation, e.g. in schools.
2. Try to get vaccinated with the Chinese, Cuban or Russian vaccines, which are traditional vaccines developed and manufactured with normal vaccine technologies, and agitate for them to be made readily available alongside the Pfizer and Moderna ones.
But the anti-vaxxers ALSO refuse to mask and show no interest in vaccines not made with the technologies they claim are the problem. So basically, they're lying. Most of them just don't want to vaccinate because they've noticed it annoys "the libs". Maybe they tell themselves a little story to dress that up, but they basically know it's nonsense and don't care.
The second problem is, the claim is it's about YOUR body, but it's in fact about EVERYONE ELSE'S body. Nobody would care if a bunch of yahoos wanted to kill just themselves. We'd all be "fine, knock yourself out! As literally as you please!" The problem is that unvaccinated people spread the disease more, and unvaccinated people who get sick don't quietly die at home, they go to the hospital and suddenly people's cancer treatments are getting postponed because everything's full of unvaccinated Covid patients. The current wave would be more of a ripple if it weren't for the unvaccinated; the ICUs are filled mainly with the unvaccinated. And again, I'll be frank: You people know all that perfectly well, but you don't want to admit that you just don't care about endangering others, so you pretend it's just about YOUR body. Well it ain't, that's a damn lie.
Amen to all that!
@ "Lucinda Jones". One would be mistaken to think you could supply some actual evidence of all that conspiracy theoreticianship.
I saw a Twitter comment yesterday suggesting they name the next coronavirus variant the Trumpola Mutant, especially if it's as contagious as Omacron but far more quick and deadly. However, the Orange Menace and his entire family are already multiple-vaxxed, so there's a disconnect between his mouth, his screaming tabloid media mouthpieces and the real world.
Bet you didn't know that, eh?
Thank you for expressing my thoughts so eloquently. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person who saw the real picture behind this Orwellian era we're experiencing here. Jean-Jacques Rousseau said: (and I translate) When a people stops defending its rights and liberties it becomes ripe for slavery. All readers who do not understand and appreciate the purpose of this "convoy" should consider these sage words.
I agree 100%. My family will not , under any circumstances, be injecting this unknown substance into our healthy bodies. We have an immune system , and if any of us do catch covid, become ill, either seriously or mildly, that is our prerogative. I would rather take my chances with the virus, then with the unknown effects that this man made "vaccine " will have ..I support the original purpose that the Freedom Convoy set out to accomplish. I do not support the behavior of some of the lunatics that are making Canadians look bad, but there are only a small percentage of them that are embarrassing us with their disrespect and hatefulness. .The true message is loud and clear, we want our freedom back, and I thank this large group in Ottawa for sacrificing so much of their time to speak up for so many of us .
The covid restrictions need to be lifted .Not just for truckers. Good for the truckers for getting this started, and helping the rest of us get back to freedom. We need to be able to get back to living , we all know how to behave and do not need to be constantly told . If there is something that we do need to be afraid of , it is not covid, it is climate change. We ignore the science when it comes to mass extinction caused by human action as we behave like a cancer consuming its home body (,the earth), , yet cling to the "science" when it comes to scientists reporting their covid news. We need to get back to living, because life really is too short to waste in captivity like this. .
I find it so interesting that people can be so selective about science. Believe in climate science, don't believe in medical science. The vaccines were tested over and over and over in increasingly larger samplings up to tens of thousands before being released to the public. Did you react the same way about polio or smallpox vaccines? I dunno about you, but I am old enough to remember a room full of iron lungs with polio-stricken children encased in them in the hospital when I had my tonsils out at five.
It is irrational to fear vaccines that have not just been rigorously examined by international institutions, but have given Canada exemplary COVID immunity seen in a markedly lower per capita death and long disease rate compared to other nations (the U.S., Britain, France, Germany ...). How? By having a direct correlation with a higher vaccination rate. The great irony is that anti-vaxxers will claim this victory as a pre-existing condition while ignoring their grannies dying in the overflowing ICUs.
When you live with an immune-compromised family member who will die if she gets COVID, even after triple vaxxing, you don't take any chances, especially after the direct experience of being repeatedly vaccinated for over six decades and knowing three people who died of COVID. As for chemicals, never under any circumstances paint a room, be within three metres of a smoker or an e-ciggy, breath urban air laden with superfine particulates from diesel trucks and buses, use baby powder, fill up the car's gas tank, eat veggies from any source except your own organic garden, eat non-organic meat or too much ocean caught tuna or farmed fish, light up the wood-burning fireplace, buy a new house or car filled with fresh plastics and laminates, use a gas stove or drink from old plastic bottles.
Lastly, vaccines and mandates are not about you. They are about not spreading COVID you didn't know you had to everybody else, and therein keeping the overwhelmed healthcare system from cracking more, if not collapsing outright in communities with exorbitantly low vaccination rates.
Ms. Ackerman, it feels like your last sentence reveals your heart-of-hearts on this -
"We need to get back to living, because life really is too short to waste in captivity like this. "
I think that what you are missing here is the bigger picture. You wear a mask, you get vaccinated to do your part to protect others, and they, in return do their part to protect you. You are part of a larger community that works together to provide you with good food and medicines, good clothes and a roof over your head.
Regardless the size of your bank account, you couldn't have done all of this by yourself.
There are people with cancer, good people that in healthier days have helped you out without them even knowing you, that are now denied a hospital bed because some people who think only of themselves have not done their part, refused to get vaccinated and flaunted masking rules, to help in suppressing this virus' spread.
That's what masking and vaccines are about: doing your small part to contribute to the common good of your community.
Anyways that's how I look at it. Did I need to be triple vaxxed for my own good? Maybe. Maybe not. But if my community is under siege, I'm going to step up, suck it up, and at the very least not be part of the problem.
Unknown substance, whatever. Take a trip to Cuba for a vacation and get vaccinated there, or scrounge theirs up on the internet. Their vaccine uses traditional technologies, and whatever bizarre conspiracy you might be imagining it's obvious Cuba isn't part of it because the world's top elites all have it in for the place.
But neither you nor any of the other people parroting the "unknown substance" nonsense will do this, because it's really just an excuse.
What "right to freedom" is it that these people suppose they have, that trumps the rights (set out in our constitution and our federal and provincial human rights law) of 200 times as many seniors ... whose tax dollars educated them, built the roads they travel on, support their children, provide their health care AND support efforts to combat climate change so their kids will have a habitable world to live in?
There have been quarantine acts in both the US and in Canada for more than 100 years. For those relying on social media interpretations of US "rights" it might be interesting to note that a Swedish preacher fought smallpox vaccination clear to the SCOTUS ... and he lost to a Republican majority panel of judges, during a Republican administration.
All the hassle could have been avoided from the get-go had Trudeau invoked the provisions of the Quarantine Act right at the beginning, and deputized all federal, provincial and municipal police and public health officers under that Act.
At this point, the only fair approach would be to lock in all individuals who'd refused vaccination for no good reason. Included in "no good reaon" is all the clap-trap they lot of 'em keep on repeating, from right-wing US agitators in social media.
One:What in tarnation does Fauci have to do with it? This is Canada, not the USA.
One: What in tarnation does Fauci have to do with it? This is Canada, not the USA.
Twp: A vaccination is not a therapy. It is preventative, not therapeutic.
Three: Unfortunately, truth and history belie your claim the vaccine is experimental.
Four: Anything the vaccine can do "bad" to you, is a mere shadow of what the illness does.
Five: Chances of winding up in ICU with Covid are some 30X greater for the unvaccinated, than for those fully vaccinated.
Six: What you've been reading and are attributing to "thousands upon thousands of highly educated medical professionals isn't: it's a few empty claims by idiots trying to pass themselves off as experts. One wonders what you think *they* have to gain ...
Seven: I've read "the real, actual science" from mid-January 2020 onward. Absolutely nothing in "the real, actual science" corrobortes anything you are saying about Covid or the vaccines.
Eight: National Observer makes no beans about the fact that it is reader-funded. Who funds your favorite "channels," and why does your "group" of law-breakers need to fundraise in the US? Aren't you a bit ashamed of taking money illegally? Even if you are willing to support sedition, do you think it wise to advertise that in a national publication?
Eight: Do the "convoy" people actually believe that housing their kids in trucks in the middle of the coldest part of a Canadian winter is behaving in the best interests of the kids?
Hopefully, social services will remove the kids, and concerns for the safety of children will no longer hamper a full-bodied response by law enforcement.
For Justin Trudeau to channel Pierre Trudeau's courage, he'd have to have some . . . well . . . courage. Not likely to happen.
I always find it particularly funny the way all the anti-vaxxers accuse Justin of all these sensational conspiratorial misdeeds. This is not a man with the guts to rock the boat.
I think that in many ways he has tried not to be his father. Do you think Pierre would have bought a pipeline to buoy Albertans? Likely not, not in a million years. And yet the reaction from many Albertans has largely been the same. He's been demonized. He's been personally attacked. And his life has been threatened. I can't for the life of me think of anything that he's said as being divisive. And yet Ms. Bergen repeated that in the House just the other day. He's divisive. And Pierre Poillievre is not? Is hers a childish taunt, or straight from the master narcissist's playbook? Either way, words matter and there should be consequences for spewing this crap, and not only apologizing for, but actively egging-on extremists who in their heart of hearts actually don't believe in our democracy.
Trudeau needs to come to terms with the fact he and his party is not and never will be liked in Alberta and half of Saskatchewan. Once he does, then he may find it easier to give up appeasing the conservative oil industry and the right wing nutters and truly start electrifying the domestic economy. While he's at it, he could quietly create tens of thousands in clean energy and climate adaptation specifically in Alberta and let the employed and the economist pundits speak for themselves.
"... tens of thousands of jobs ..."
How I wish there was an edit function in these comment sections.
The truckers and their colleagues want the freedom to infect me, something that may cause my demise. Do they not understand this?
Denial is a powerful brand of ear plugs and an effective tranquilizer for susceptible masses. Tribalism reinforces all that.
Not to mention their mothers, grandmothers and children.
They claim they'll "win by numbers." On that score, they've already lost. The entire population of truckers amounts to some 302,000 individuals -- while seniors alone make up a voting force 6 million strong.
Their answer to seniors, who've been essentially "locked in for their own protection" for nearly two years now, has been, "If you're afraid, go lock yourself up for your own self-protection." We already did that: because we knew full well that able-bodied young yahoos would be triaged in to the best hospital care available when they got sick, while we'd be dubbed "not suitable candidates."
At this point, the anti-jabbers should in solidarity with their misinformed fellows step up and pay the cost of their treatment ... and restitution for all those who've lost family members because of their impact on healthcare resources. If they wanted to do something for freedom, how about shouting out for freedom from being infected by yahoos who believe everything that comes across their right-wing nonsense feeds?
At this point, those without vaccine passports have been holding the entire country hostage, as they disproportionately spread the disease and occupy hospitals receiving treatments they've made unavailable to others.